Ukraine tennis star Elina Svitolina whose family are caught up in war

• The world No 21 said most of her family and friends remain in war-torn Ukraine

Elina Svitolina booked her a place in the Wimbledon quarter finals in straight sets on Monday. But throughout the game, the Ukrainian tennis star’s mind was elsewhere.

‘Wimbledon has become black for me today,’ the Odesa-born player wrote afterwards, adding that turning up for the match was ‘mentally beyond anything I had ever faced’.

Svitolina was competing hours after a Russian missile strike tore through a children’s hospital in her homeland, killing dozens of people in the most brutal bombardment of Kyiv for months.

The mother-of-one, who lives in Monaco with her tennis pro husband Gaël Monfils, was visibly emotional as she said most of her family and friends are still in Ukraine, and that she rings them every day to check in as the war rages on.

She broke down in tears as she spoke of the turmoil the attacks have left her in, and has previously opened up about the ‘unbearable pain’ she feels over the horrors being inflicted on her compatriots by Vladimir Putin’s forces.

Following the outbreak of the war in February 2022, the world No 21 had to take a break from tennis, partly due to emotional exhaustion over the invasion.

Pregnant with her daughter Skai at the time, she spent days drained or in tears and had to work with a psychologist, as well as lean on Monfils and her family.

She has also spent periods alone as she tries to process the horrific realities of what is going on in Ukraine.

‘It was really difficult for me to really be here, and do anything,’ she said at Wimbledon yesterday. ‘I just wanted to be in my room, just (to) be there with my emotions, with everything.’

She revealed that her father had just got back from a couple of weeks in the country visiting her grandmother, who still lives in war-torn Odesa.

While her brother and parents live abroad, her uncle and his family are still in the country, as well as many of her friends. 

‘Pretty much everyone is based in Ukraine,’ she said. ‘I have contact pretty much every single day.

‘It’s nice to hear their voices. Of course, sad voices, but in a way it still warms my heart when I speak with them.’ 

As well as having loved ones facing Moscow’s relentless against civilian targets, Svitolina’s close friend and fellow tennis ace Sergiy Stakhovsky is fighting on the frontline.

The former world No 31 swapped a racquet for a rifle, enrolling in the Ukrainian Army following the Russian invasion.

He now gives Svitolina updated on a ‘daily basis’, as well as supporting her foundation which seeks to help youngsters to get into sport and have as normal a life as possible as bombs rain down around them and their fathers are at the front.

This work is crucial to Svitolina, in part, because she wants Ukraine’s young people to have the same opportunities she had before the war.

She lived and trained in her teenage years in the eastern city Kharkiv, one of the cities that have suffered the most damage during the war which was retaken from Russia after a bitter campaign.

The sports ground where she and her Ukrainian teammates once played Fed Cup matches was destroyed in Russian bombing.

Elina began playing tennis at the age of five in the Ukrainian city of Odesa where she lived with her sporting parents and her older brother Julian, who is nine years older than her.

Born to Jewish parents in the Black Sea town of Odesa, where her frail grandmother has remained throughout the war, Svitolina was encouraged by her family to take up sport.

Her mother Elena was a swimmer and professional bowls player, while her Her father Mykhailo was a wrestler turned estate agent.

Her brother Julian, who is nine years her senior, played tennis from an early age. Noticing the attention it got him from their parents, a young Elina decided she too should pick up a racket.

‘I knew my parents would like it better if I was with a racket,’ she said. ‘Eventually, in principle, I liked tennis, I had many friends in tennis, we always played together.’

Her steely dedication allowed her to break into the ranks of the world’s top 50 players when she was aged 18, the top 20 two years later and the top ten in 2017 after a string of tournament victories.

She went on to reach semi-finals in Wimbledon and the US Open in 2019 and became Ukraine’s first ever Olympic winner at tennis when she scooped a bronze medal at the Tokyo games in 2021.

Since 2022, she has used her platform to make the world aware of what is going on in Ukraine, and works as an ambassador for UNITED24.

She has been strident in her personal support for Volodymyr Zelensky and regularly praises the war-time President’s leadership. 

She has also made headlines for refusing to shake hands with any Russian or Belarusian players as long as Vladimir Putin’s invasion – backed by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko – rages on.

As she vies to make it to her first Wimbledon final, Svitolina will face Moscow-born Elena Rybakina in her quarter-final tie.

She has no plans to snub her opponent’s handshake on this occasion, citing the former Wimbledon champion’s switched allegiance to Kazakhstan in 2018.

But the atrocities inflicted on her homeland this week will continue to hang heavy over her at the next round.

She described Monday as ‘an incredibly sad day today for all Ukrainians, and when asked if she was capable of celebrating reaching the last eight at the tournament for the third time, Svitolina admitted it was difficult to feel elated.

‘Many Ukrainians will share this feeling with me,’ she added. ‘We feel guilt that we feel happy or that we feel good. Not only because I’m in the quarter-final of the Grand Slam, but in everything, like you go on holiday, you feel guilty because you’re not in Ukraine.

‘Many people cannot leave the country. Many people are at the war. Many people are fighting, defending our front lines.

‘I think we’ve been living with this feeling for over two years. It’s nothing new. But it’s not a pleasant feeling to have.’